Nagpur: Nitish Kumar’s comment regarding a ‘secular PM’ seems to create rift between the BJP-JD(U) combine. Reacting sharply to Nitish’s comments on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday said that it’s none of the business of the JD(U) leader to decide who is secular and who is not.

Extending support to Modi, the probable prime ministerial candidate of NDA for the General Election 2014, the RSS chief said, "To keep alive the Hindutva ideology, the Hindu 'samaaj' (society) should come together. And the country should have a Prime Minister who believes in that ideology or propounds that view.”

Bhagwat's comments came a day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hit out at Narendra Modi without naming him and said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, should announce a secular prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Nitish Kumar on Tuesday made it clear that Modi is unacceptable as an NDA candidate for prime ministership.

"Will Nitish decide what sort of person makes a good PM?" Bhagwat questioned.

He also questioned whether all the Prime Ministers till now had been secular? And where is the harm in having a pro-Hindu Prime Minister?

Slamming Nitish, Bhagwat said that the JD(U) leader is scared to call himself a Hindu.

The Nitish-Modi rivalry has been on a high for the past few days. Modi took a dig at politicians from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for what the Gujarat chief minister called "resort to caste-based politics".

Nitish Kumar then said that Modi, who has been a constant irritant in the JD(U)-BJP coalition ties in Bihar, should mind his own business instead of making comments on others.

Meanwhile, reacting to the statement of RSS chief, JD(U) spokesman Shivanand Tiwari said that Modi’s presence in the last Lok Sabha elections had dented NDA’s chances of victory. Talking on the need to have a secular Prime Minister, he said that this matter relates to the entire nation and should not be confined to one state only.